This film is an amazing tribute film to Japanese Kaiju and Mecha Genre

Rating: 8/10 (18 July 2013)

It's a great summer blockbuster movie! This was a fun ride. Director Guillermo Del Toro did a great job. It's outshine the Transformers series way up! I don't think the movie was ripping off a lot of Japanese Kaiju movies like 1954's Gojira and others, but making tribute to them. I saw a lot of plot references from other Japanese mecha works such as 1979's Mobile Suit Gundam, 1995's Neon Genesis Evangelion, 1989's Gunhead. I do also see a lot of references from American films such as 1989's Robot Jox, and 1993's Power Rangers as well. I like to see Mechas and Kaiju monster fighting against each other, so this movie was a treat. It's 100% badass. The film was very good in terms of visual effects. It had some good CGI effects. The movie starts out in 2020s (Honestly, they should have move the date up more) with an invasion of alien monstrous creatures call Kaiju, started rising from the Pacific Ocean from a portal from a different dimension wreaking havoc on humanity. To combat the giant Kaijus, a special type of weapon was devised: massive robots, called Jaegers, which are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. But more and more Kaijus continue to enter the portal, more than the Jaegers could be build and pilots could be train. On the verge of defeat, the only hope for mankind is a last ditch attempt to seal the portal once and for all. I do have to say, I love the acting in this film. Nobody really kept it down. I love Charlie Hunnam as Raleigh Becket, the washed up former pilot who has to team up with an untested trainee Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi) to control the Jaeger robot Gypsy Danger. I think Mako Mori is a very strong female character that hold up her own in the film and girls can look up to. It's nice seeing a strong Japanese character portray like this, then the dumb eye candy that follows the main character around. The person that made the film was Idris Elba as Marshall Stacker Pentecost. He's so commanding in the role. I do have to say that the other characters were walking stereotypes. Charles Day as the over the top scientist, Ron Perlman as the black market kaiju organ dealer gangster Hannibal Chau, and Robert Kazinsky as the hot shot Top Gun's 'Iceman" type pilot that is there just to be a jerk. While there is abundant Clichés and stereotypical characters. There was a pretty good emotional scene in the middle of the film that I love. Mako's flashback of her as a kid and the absence of other people emphasizes the terror she felt being all alone and chased by a kaiju. That little girl that portray a young Mako did an amazing job and I really felt for her, and the way she was holding on to her shoe was a highly powerful representation of her shock and fear, she was clasping to it for comfort and in that situation at that age. I do like how the film fits how the characters got to know each other by drifting. The mind meld drifting was still somewhat unclear. Using one right and another person left hemisphere to make one brain is confusing. I felt it was trying too hard to be 2010's Inception with this. Would repeat handshakes fill in the gaps that they apparently had? If they were wholly in each others' minds, do they really need to talk to each other? When the scientist drifted with the nearly dead brain piece how did the kaiju track him down? Why couldn't the kaiju just terraform the planet themselves and they kill the dinosaurs? It pose more questions than answers. The science in this doesn't make any sense at all, but after all it's a Sci-fiction movie, it doesn't have too. Honestly there were some things they could have cut such as the whole wall discussion and the side adventures of the scientist. It was stupid. They could have fit more time with the Jaegers. I was bit disappointed with the other Jaegers screen time. The action is amazing. I wish more daytime fights scenes with the monsters and more use of the sword. At less, give these Jaegers guns so they have more fighting chance. I can barely see what is going on with the night scenes. I think it's worth checking out in the theater. You will miss a lot if you don't go there. Just don't see it in 3D. 3D was annoying as it's hard to see due to 3D rain and snow. Everything was so dark, which hurts watching it in 3D. Everything happens at night for some reason, or underwater, or underwater at night, so it's hard to tell what's going on with in those scenes with the glasses on. Watching it on D-Box Simulators is interesting, but gimmicky. Very entertaining. The division of the film I think that cinema is moving towards a remarkable development and a very good overall story of the film is not original but exciting for the viewer. The Japanese have been making movies like this for years. Just without the fantastic CGI effects. So check out Pacific Rim!